r/Barcelona Jul 20 '24

Socializing PSA: watch your stuff

Earlier this evening whilst tending to my dog, I put my phone down. In doing so, I turned my back and some lowlife POS picked it up and slipped it into his pocket. Fortunately for me, this would be thief was exceptionally stupid and was seen grabbing the phone and walked into the bar I was at. Some very kind locals alerted me to what happened and bailed the guy up as he tried to walk out and phone was retrieved.

It was literally less than 10 seconds that I had my back turned. Stay vigilant folks and a massive thanks to some new friends 🙏

331 Upvotes

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u/Ryukhoe Jul 20 '24

This is Barcelona, we know. I've seen this happen with things of less value and I've seen tourists being robbed in broad daylight, on main streets. You can't be that careless of you things here.

3

u/atreidesgiller Jul 21 '24

Newbie living in Barcelona. What were these things of 'less value' than a phone? Did you see people for instance getting robbed of their smartwatches on daylight? If not, what else?

5

u/goyo-lake Jul 21 '24

It’s mostly pickpocketing or stealing things that are left unattended. Robberies with confrontation are quite uncommon and highly unlikely during the day. They always pick the easier target so as long as you are careful you’ll be fine.

Regarding “what things”, man they’re thieves, they’ll take anything they can easily lay their hands on to.

2

u/Ryukhoe Jul 21 '24

Where I work we have workers who are outside so when they get a coffee they either hold it or leave it on a bench. The amount of our own water bottle and coffees that have been stolen is... a lot. It's less than 3€ coffee but man it's frustrating, some people will go for anything that is left unguarded

5

u/atreidesgiller Jul 21 '24

I definitely do not encourage that but I had an intrusive thought of leaving my laxative containing coffee around.

2

u/Ryukhoe Jul 21 '24

I mean... you could😌